Too Little, Too Late
by Grey-X
Summary: In the aftermath of Dumbledore's death, Ron Weasley takes some time to reflect on what's happened so far, what's in store for him and his friends, and the actions of the one he holds responsible for what happened: Draco Malfoy. PostHPB


Too Little, Too Late  
a Harry Potter one-shot  
9-25-2006  
by Grey-X

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all of its characters are the creation and property of J.K. Rowling.

* * *

It's only been a few days since Professor Dumbledore's funeral, and the memories from that are still fresh in my head. Everything from the centaurs' volley of arrows to that pyrotechnic display around Dumbledore's casket... I can still recall it all vividly. I wish I didn't, though. That funeral was not fun. It was necessary, sure, the honor the memory of someone who did so much for so many people. But it was also a reminder of how the entire Wizarding world has lost a shining beacon of hope, which we desperately need at times like this.

Now, I look around at all my friends, those closest to me. Hermione and my little sister Ginny, I don't think I've ever seen them THIS depressed, and considering the messes we tend to get ourselves into, the things we've had to see over the years, that's saying a lot. Neville and Luna, Fred and George, they're in a right state, too. But Harry...he's probably the only one who feels the same thing I do: rage.

True, I didn't know Dumbledore nearly as well as Harry did. To me, he was just the school's headmaster, and of course, someone who I knew could lead the fight against You-Know-Who. Like the rest of my friends and family, I looked up to him and trusted him to do what was best in terms of fighting this war against You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters. But to Harry, I know he was much more than that. I know that Harry saw him as a sort of father figure, just like Sirius Black was to him. Watching Harry agonize over Sirius's death was bad enough, but now, watching him go through all that again, to suffer that sort of loss again... Yes, I do feel sadness, but mostly, I'm angry about how Harry has to go through that again. And there's one person in particular I wanna take it all out on...

I know that, at the moment, I shouldn't let anger take hold of me. Not just yet, anyway. Fleur Delacour and my brother Bill are getting married soon, and that wedding is the only good, happy thing I see happening in the near future. Hopefully, it'll be a cause for celebration, and we should all savor that opportunity. Because after that, it's down to business.

It's a secret that Dumbledore told only Harry, and he's only told it to me and Hermione: the key to You-Know-Who's supposed immortality, his Horcruxes. Something about how when you murder someone, willfully splitting for soul in half, you can use some enchantment to put that piece of your soul in some object. This is supposed to make whoever pulls this sick little stunt practically immortal, and it's probably how You-Know-Who survived his first meeting with Harry sixteen years ago. He supposedly made six. Two've been dealt with already, and Harry's determined to find the other four, then take care of You-Know-Who for good.

And Hermione and I, we'll be there with him every step of the way. I know Harry doesn't want us to, but that's too bad. I care for him too much to let him do something like this alone. When we first met on the Hogwarts Express, he was almost completely alone, in desperate need of a friend. I'm happy to say I filled that void, and as time went on, he became closer to me than my own brothers. I can't imagine these six years at Hogwarts without him, we've been through so much. I know it's stupidly cliche, but if we had to walk barefoot into Hell to find these Horcruxes, I'd follow him without a second thought, and I know Hermione would, too. Both of us will stand with him 'til the end, and we'll take down as many Death Eaters as it takes until we get to those Horcruxes and You-Know-Who himself.

And that's the thing that's mind on my mind lately, even while my family gets ready for Bill's wedding. There's a lot of fighting ahead for the three of us, I know it. You-Know-Who's got entire armies to throw at us, but we've got to be ready. Dementors? I'm not too worried, even though I'm still having a bit of trouble with my Patronus; Harry can conjure a Patronus like it's nobody's business, and Hermione's got a handle on it, too. Giants? Harry and I dealt with a troll in our first year, so I'm sure we could bring down a giant or two if we put our minds to it. Inferi? From what Harry told me, cast Incendio once and that'll be more than enough.

To be honest, it's the Death Eaters that worry me the most, but it's them that I'm most anxious to get out of the way. They're the ones I hate the most. For one thing, Fenrir Greyback owes me big time for what he did to my brother. Bellatrix Lestrange will get what's coming to her for what she did to Sirius and Neville's mum and dad, the three of us will make sure of it. And we haven't forgotten about Wormtail and what he did, either...

Then, of course, there's Severus Snape. He completely fooled the Order of the Phoenix, and killing Dumbledore...none of us will ever forgive him. Harry has every reason to hate Snape as much as he does; for them, it was hate at first sight, and him killing Dumbledore in front of Harry clinched it.

But as for me, the Death Eater I hate the most is none of the above. But just like Snape, it's someone who I've been unlucky enough to be around for the last six years: Draco Malfoy.

I suppose that right now, Harry's too busy hating Snape to spare Malfoy a thought. But not me. These last few days have given me a lot of time to think, and there've been only two things on my mind.

One, the wedding preparations made me realize how badly I screwed things up last year with Hermione, and I'm wondering if I can undo the damage, but I'll have to worry about that later...

Two, I can't stop thinking about how none of this would've happened if it weren't for Malfoy. Like Dad said - using a Muggle analogy, like he always tends to do - it was Snape who pulled the trigger, but Malfoy loaded the gun.

Malfoy happily took up the job of assassin, judging from what Harry told me. Malfoy was the one who figured out how to use those Vanishing cabinets. And it was Malfoy who helped lead those Death Eaters into the castle and attack the Order.

Yeah yeah, I know Malfoy was starting to lose it as the months went on, and that he couldn't bring himself to kill Dumbledore himself. Yeah, so he finally showed some signs of human emotion before all this happened. But so what? I can't forget everything he did before, how he showed that he was a spitting image of his dad, sick and twisted inside, insanely cruel and arrogant...

But believe it or not, in the beginning, I'd hoped it wouldn't be that way. I heard the stories from Mum and Dad, about how the Malfoys were in with You-Know-Who. That they were irredeemably evil. But back then, I was really naive, and I wanted to believe that maybe it wasn't a case of black-and-white, good-and-evil. That somehow, this son of theirs that I found out I'd be going to school with wouldn't be a mirror image of his parents.

Right from the start, I was proven dead wrong.

* * *

I should've realized it from our first meeting on the train that you were evil through and through. Arrogant, loud-mouthed, and sadistic...those are some of the words that popped in my head. But for a while, I still held out hope that there'd be some signs - ANY signs - of humanity in you. As our first year went on, though, I never saw any. The trick about that late-night duel that almost got us in hot water with filch and all troublee with Hagrid's dragon made me hate you plenty, believe you me. But still, somewhere deep down, some hope remained.

I don't remember when it was crushed forever, but trust me, eventually it was. I still remember your attitude in our second year, when the basilisk was running around attacking Muggle-borns. You strode about as if you owned the place...you were DELIGHTED that those kids were getting paralyzed. And that night Harry and I used the Polyjuice Potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room, the things you said about my family and how you had a go at my dad...if Harry hadn't stopped me I would've snapped your neck right then and there.

Then there was out third year. You showed how much you hated Hagrid, for no reason at all. He's kind, compassionate, and a hard worker, and the only one who probably knows more about magical creatures than him is Hermione. He was the perfect man to teach the class, but no, you had no respect for him, and what's worse, out of spite you tried to have Buckbeak executed!

As the years went on, your antics got worse and worse. I still remember how much you steamed Harry up by working with Rita Skeeter, getting headlines in the Daily Prophet that put him, Hermione and Hagrid in a bad light. And for what? Because we're not like you and don't believe the same things you do, you had to do everything you can to tear us down? Or maybe you were so jealous of what we're able to do, things you wouldn't have the courage to even try, that you tried to bring us down out of envy?

Insufferable as you were in our fourth year, though, I think it was when you sided with Umbridge in our fifth year that made me realize you were beyond all hope. It was then that you truly showed yourself for the sadistic, hate-fueled sycophant that you are. I think it was then that I finally figured out that you really were a mirror image of your dad, and that you didn't deserve any sympathy.

But now, Harry and Hermione might argue differently. Hermione might argue that your bigotry against Muggle-borns and half-bloods comes from fear, not pure hate. They might point out that you were being blackmailed into doing this, and that at one point you almost cracked. That you actually cried. Sure, they'll argue that you hesitated at the last minute, and Snape had to do it for you...

But I don't buy into any of that. From what I've gathered, you were all too happy to try and assassinate Dumbeldore. You made no secret about how much you hated him, always mentioned that your father said he was the worst thing to happen to Hogwarts, when we all know nothing's further from the truth. You also made it painfully clear that you'd side with You-Know-Who if given the chance, even before he came back. As far as I'm concerned, you made your choice long ago. It was only just now that you've started to see the consequences of your choice.

Choice... Harry once told me that Dumbedore told him that we're all defined by the choices we make, not the way we're born or by how we're raised. Sure, you were raised by a family that made bigotry a way of life, but still, ultimately, you have to be held responsible by choosing to buy into that line of thinking. Before you came to Hogwarts it was all you knew, true, but you were then shown other ideas, exposed to other ways of thinking...and you ignored them all. You drew satisfaction from a line of thinking that said you were better than everyone else, and never stopped to consider that line of thinking may be wrong...until it was too late and you got yourself in too far.

Hermione will probably feel like you should be forgiven, and maybe even Harry will too. Sorry, but I don't feel that way. In my eyes, what you did, what you helped the Death Eaters do, can NEVER be forgiven. Maybe being unforgiving means I'm weaker than Harry and Hermione, I don't know. But what's happened has pissed me off too much to even consider forgiving you for taking part in this.

We're really defined by the choices we make. I've made my choice: I'm standing by my friends, and against psychos like You-Know-Who. And you've made the choice to side with people who bring nothing but death and misery. This is war now, Malfoy. You've chosen your side, and I've chosen mine. The battle lines are drawn now, the chessboard has been set. When we'll start making our moves, God only knows...

I don't care if you were being blackmailed. And I don't care that you finally showed signs of humanity for the first time. It was too little, Malfoy, and way, way too late.

We're coming for you. All of you.

* * *

And with that, I've finally started writing again. I had planned to write up this one-shot shortly after finishing my Harry Potter/Metroid crossover, _Fusion of Destinies_. ( You mean to tell me you missed it? Shame on you:P ) But that annoying thing called 'real life' kept me away from a lot of things for several months, and I couldn't find the motivation to take up writing again 'til now.

As for this story, this doesn't exactly reflect how I personally feel about Draco Malfoy. It's just how I think Ron probably feels about him. We all know he's much more aggressive and less forgiving than his friends. As for Draco, I personally don't think final judgment should be passed on him until we finish reading _Harry Potter 7_. Who knows what final fate J.K. Rowling intends for him...

So long,  
Grey-X


End file.
